Men at Work’s Greg Ham, 58, found dead at home

The body of Men at Work flautist Greg Ham was found shortly after midday Thursday (local time) at a house in Melbourne, Australia’s inner north. Ham was 58.

Police were told of the body after a friend showed up at the house to see how he was doing. They are trying to determine the cause of Ham’s death.

With director John Francis, he provided original music for the four-minute cartoon short Tug Wilson (1997), produced by Australia’s Surreal World studio.

Ham was born in Australia on September 27, 1953. Police would not confirm the identity of the man pending notification of relatives. However, they said that he was a 58-year-old who lived at the house alone.

There were several unexplained circumstances about the man’s death, said Detective Senior Sergeant Shane O’Connell, who would not go into detail. “There are a number of issues we are trying to resolve as to how the male died,” said O’Connell, of the homicide squad.

A post-mortem will be held to ascertain the cause of death.

A friend went to Ham’s house, but there was no answer at the door. He came back with another friend and found the body in front of the house.

Linda Phypers, a close neighbor, said that he had just moved into the house a few months ago. Though somewhat reclusive, he was recently at a barbecue, she added.

“He looked like he’d done it hard. He had lived just a bit further around the corner, and I think Men at Work had their first recording there,” she said.

Ham was always pleasant to everyone on the street, although he had obvious health problems, said Phyphers.

“He talked about that riff, and he was still pretty upset about that. But he was a good guy. He used to walk the streets a bit and looked a bit daggy [scruffy].”

Ham had been renovating the corner house, she added, a converted storefront.

A section of the street near the house has been fenced off with police tape, and many police were at the scene Thursday.

Forensic detectives weree at the scene. Pathologists were expected to attend later in the day.